148 



SCIENCE. 



[K. S. Vol. V. No. 108. 



he is a mau of broad views and good executive 

 capacity. After satisfying himself that the 

 proper official safeguards are observed in the 

 bureau and that the head of it is competent and 

 of good report, tlie Secretary rarely meddles 

 with details — in fact, has no time to waste upon 

 them. 



The Director of the bureau can devote his 

 energies to carrying on its work and maintaining 

 proper supervision of details. If it is a bureau 

 in which, say, chemical v^'ork is required, the 

 laboratory occupies part of the quarters of the 

 bureau, its operations are immediately adjacent 

 to the oflBces of men whose work is being sup- 

 plemented by chemical research, the supplies 

 for the chemist are only those required for the 

 work he is doing, and the latter is promoted by 

 the constant opportunity of conference between 

 the people interested. An experiment can be 

 ordered, immediately taken up, the process al- 

 tered or the scope enlarged while actually in 

 progress, or it can be stopped to take up some- 

 thing of instant importance ; in short, the labo- 

 ratory is a tool in the hands of the bureau, 

 which can be directed to exactly the work which 

 is required without delay, interruption or inter- 

 ference. This promotes efficiency and the prog- 

 ress of science. 



It is true that an unfriendly Secretary might 

 wreck the scientific work of a bureau by getting 

 rid of a competent and installing an incompe- 

 tent Director. But this danger is not obviated 

 by the suggested consolidation, and cannot be 

 hy anything short of a cordial acceptance of the 

 merit principle of civil service reform by the 

 whole executive body of the government. We 

 are all agreed that that will be a happy day, 

 hut also that it has not yet dawned. 



The head of the proposed department is to 

 be a Cabinet officer, and hence necessarily 

 changed with the changes of administration. 

 It follows that he will be more or less of a poli- 

 tician and his appointment obtained by politi- 

 cal methods. Having no other executive duties, 

 and it being impossible that he should have a 

 working knowledge of all of the scientific 

 branches under his control, the tendency to 

 meddle and modify would be almost irresistible. 

 The Directors of the several bureaus, instead of 

 attending to their business, would have to oc- 



cupy themselves in protecting it against ill-ad- 

 vised interference. 



The chemical laboratories being consolidated, 

 the chief chemist would be a greater man than 

 any of his colleagues. No Director of a bureau 

 could control his own chemical work. With 

 demands for particular jobs from several bu- 

 reaus on hand it would be wholly uncertain 

 when any of them would be finished. Com- 

 plaints would be met by playing one off against 

 another. Responsibility, and, to a large extent, 

 efficiency, would be lost. Meanwhile no fewer 

 men could do the chemical work than were re- 

 quired before. Instead of the quarters being 

 included in the rent of the several bureaus, as 

 now, a large and separate building would be 

 called for and required. That a dollar would 

 be saved by such a proceeding is doubtful. 

 That delays and inefficiency would be inevitable 

 is certain. It may be said that the above is a 

 pessimistic view, but we have in the govern- 

 ment printing office a brilliant example of the 

 effects of consolidation, where it takes six 

 months to a year to get a scientific book print- 

 ed, and there is no responsibility whatever to 

 the Department, whose work is entirely at the 

 mercy of the public printer, who knows no su- 

 perior and does as he likes. Those who have 

 had experience with his office do not desire 

 any further consolidations of the same kind. 



Of course, the chemical laboratory has been 

 merely taken as an illustration. The writer 

 has nothing to do with such laboratories, but 

 the principle holds good throughout. 



Dr. Dabney has spoken of other instances of 

 supposed duplication of work, or rather two 

 parties doing the same kind of work. Any 

 genuine duplication could be cured at once if 

 pointed out, but, as before stated, the duplica- 

 tion is not real but nominal. Different sorts of 

 work are called by the same name. There is 

 no point of contact between the hydrology of 

 the Geological Survey and the hydrography of 

 the Navy Department. Methods which would 

 disgrace the Coast Survey work have always 

 been regarded as entirely sufficient in the Laud 

 Office. One kind costs twelve cents a mile, the 

 other two hundred dollars. These are not 

 duplications. 



I do not for a moment claim that our govern- 



